Gigai Problems
by TwiLightJoy
Summary: Soi Fong is given an assignment in the Living World, and encounters some difficulties with her gigai. YoruSoi, oneshot.


**A/N:** Hi, thanks for reading! Welcome to my first Bleach fic. It's been a long time since I've written anything but I've been lucky to have some help and encouragement. Thanks to CaptainYoruichi and the YoruSoi FC at BleachAsylum, you guys rock!

* * *

Bzzzzt, bzzzzt. Bzzzzt, bzzzzt. Yoruichi's soul pager buzzed and she reached for it, not bothering to see who was contacting her. She already knew. She set down her chopsticks and pushed her bowl back from the edge of the table.

"Yes, what's going on now?" she asked, sighing as though she was terribly put upon by the call. In actuality, she thought it was kind of cute.

"Yoruichi-sama, I'm sorry to bother you again!" Soi Fong's voice responded, sounding humble but a bit panicked. Yoruichi could visualize Soi, blushing and bowing her head. Ah, her devoted little bee, how nice to have her back again. How delightful to tease her. She had missed it.

Yoruichi shook her head. "Ah, Soi, it's no trouble really. Tell me, how can I help you this time?" Since Soi had been assigned to the human world for a short time, she'd had a lot of issues with being there. It seemed every few hours something would come up that either puzzled or infuriated her. Yoruichi had spent a century here, and clearly that made her some sort of expert. Never mind how much of that time she was a cat. To Soi, she was The Expert.

There was a slight pause on the line before Soi answered. "It's my gigai, I think there's something wrong with it."

Yoruichi smirked. "Is that so? What's wrong then?" She seriously doubted anything was wrong with the gigai. She'd already seen it - and had to admit it looked almost as good as the real thing.

Soi looked in the mirror as she spoke. She had a hard time not staring in horror at herself. "My face is all red. It feels like I'm on fire!"

"Are you sure your face isn't just red because you're talking to me?" Yoruichi asked teasingly. "And your body is on fire? Soi - I had no idea you felt that way. This is turning into a more serious conversation that I expected."

"Gah! Y-Yoruichi, I'mbeing serious!" Soi stammered, wondering if she would be able to see her face get any redder than it already was. To her dismay, there wasn't a noticeable difference. "I don't know what's wrong with it! It wasn't this way when I got it. It feels like the skin is on too tight or something."

Yoruichi sighed. She decided maybe it would be best to humor her little bee this time. "Would you like to come over, then, so I can have a look?"

"Ah, do you think you could come over here instead?" the raven-haired girl asked. "I'd rather not go out this way, it's … uncomfortable."

The older woman nodded and gazed sadly at her dinner, sitting there uneaten. "Sure, I'll be over shortly." They ended their conversation and Yoruichi put her uneaten noodles into the refrigerator, promising them she would be back soon. With that, she headed out to the apartment Soi was renting for her stay in the living world.

She ran a hand through her purple locks, brushing her hair back from her face, then knocked on the door. A muffled "Hai!" was heard, and the door opened to reveal Soi Fong. True to her word, and against all Yoruichi had expected, Soi's usually pale, porcelain skin was in fact bright red. And not just her face, but her arms as well. She was stunned immobile at the sight, but Soi's hand quickly darted out and pulled Yoruichi into the apartment, swiftly shutting and locking the door behind her.

"See? It's horrible!" Soi lamented, looking down at her own arm. Her sempai finally recovered from the sight, only to burst out laughing. "Yoruichi-sama! Stop laughing! What's wrong with my gigai?" she demanded.

"Aaah, ha ha ha, oh Soi, you're sunburnt!" the dark-skinned woman laughed. She flopped down into the nearest chair, her knees weak from laughter. When she finally was able to stop laughing, she wiped a tear from the corner of one golden eye. Looking up, she saw an expression on Soi Fong's face that would have any member of the Second Division trembling in terror. "It's okay! It'll heal on its own soon," Yoruichi said in a more calm and hopefully soothing tone.

"Sunburnt?! How was I supposed to know?" Soi growled, embarrassed to have worried so about what seemed to be a very simple problem. A very painful, but seemingly normal, problem. "Stupid human world, where the sun can hurt you. Stupid gigai!" She sat down on the couch rather violently, then quickly jerked away from the back, a pained look on her face. "Aaa! Yow!" she yelped, her back throbbing in pain from something as simple as brushing against soft fabric. Not for the first time since she arrived in the human world, Soi Fong wished she could cry - of course, she hadn't allowed herself to. This was, however, the first time that she'd wanted to cry from pain.

Yoruichi felt bad for poor Soi, especially after hurting her feelings by laughing at her. She was sure the sunburn had to be really painful. She'd very seldom seen anyone quite that horrible a shade of red. "Oh, Soi, I'm sorry! I didn't mean to laugh at you, my little bee. There is something that can make your burns feel better."

"Is it kido?" Soi asked grouchily. She'd never been that great at healing kido, unfortunately, destructive arts were more her thing. She wasn't sure what to do with herself, almost everything hurt. Here was Yoruichi-sama, taking time out of her day to jump to the rescue, and in the end it was something so trivial she'd been laughed at over it. Let this miserable assignment end.

"I think you'll like it better than kido. Let me run to the store to get it." Yoruichi hopped up from the chair and headed for the apartment's kitchen. Before the younger woman could even voice a protest, the taller woman had filled a glass with ice water and ran a cloth under cool water. She brought them to Soi, who still sat uneasily on the couch. "For now, drink this, you need to keep your body hydrated. The cloth will help keep you cool. I'll be back soon!"

Soi took the glass and set the damp cloth on her left shoulder. She had to admit, that did feel a little better. "Take the key," the Second Division captain said grudgingly, "it's on the left there." Yoruichi shot a confident grin at Soi and grabbed the key on her way out, locking Soi safely inside.

By the time Soi Fong had finished her glass of water, Yoruichi was already unlocking the door. The Chinese woman had fished an ice cube out of the glass and was holding it against her face, letting it melt against her sunburnt cheeks and nose. Feeling at least somewhat cooler had also calmed her temper noticeably, much to Yoruichi's relief. The cool cloth was now spread over the back of Soi's neck, easing its pain slightly.

"Welcome back, Yoruichi-sama," Soi greeted her sempai. The last of the ice cube melted away and she wiped the moisture off her fingers onto the towel, which was drying out itself.

Yoruichi grinned and placed the key back where she'd gotten it from, closing and locking the door behind her. She held up a bag from a store around the corner. "Hopefully this will help you," she answered, reaching into the small bag she had brought back with her. She pulled out a tube of bright green … Soi didn't even know what it was.

Soi raised a black eyebrow at the goo. "Please tell me I'm not supposed to eat that. Already I'm failing to see how this is better than kido." She pressed a finger against her red forearm, then pulled it away, staring at the dot she'd made as it turned from her normal pale color back to bright red.

Yoruichi grinned and pulled the drying cloth off Soi's back. "First, no, please don't eat it. They do make a juice from the same plant, but that won't help us right now. Second, you'll see for yourself in a minute, just try to be patient. Do you need more water? How far does the burn go?" she asked, trying to get the shorter woman talking.

"It's all over my back, shoulders, and arms," Soi sighed, wishing she'd known what would happen staying too long in the sun while wearing something that left so much skin exposed. "In Soul Society I wear backless shirts all the time to train in, it's foolish to wear anything else … I never thought anything would be different here. Tch, I should have known." The former princess grabbed the now-empty glass and took it to the kitchen as she listened to the captain talk, figuring an empty glass should be filled.

"Okay, I want you to take your shirt off and lay down on the couch," Yoruichi ordered from the kitchen._ Hee hee hee, this should be good._

"WHAT!?"

"Unless you'd rather in your bed?"

"WHAT!?" Soi's tone was clearly horrified. This was so much fun. A late, cold dinner was really worth it sometimes.

"It's like an ointment. I have to rub it onto your skin," the taller woman explained, hiding her smirk by grabbing a second glass from the cupboard. "Unless you can reach your entire back?"

"Not a prayer in this ridiculous body," she heard the younger woman grumble almost under her breath, then the sound of curtains being pulled closed. Yoruichi respectfully kept her back turned away from where Soi sat, slowly filling the second glass as she heard lighter fabric rustling, and finally weight shifting on the couch as Soi lay down.

Having heard Soi was settled, the former captain brought both glasses back into the living room and set them down on the end table nearest Soi's head. She wasn't really surprised to see Soi's shirt was neatly folded on the end table within arm's reach. Finally getting a look at how bad the younger girl's back looked, Yoruichi shook her head as she picked up the tube of aloe and squeezed a good amount into her hand. She hoped this would work to make Soi feel better, and for a moment wanted to just use kido. But that would defeat the purpose of having gotten the aloe to begin with. Setting the tube down, Yoruichi then carefully pulled Soi's braids up and away from her back and arms, setting them next to where the shorter woman's head lay.

"This might feel a bit odd," the dark-skinned woman said, kneeling beside the couch. Her hand was paused over Soi's back, waiting for a response.

"It already smells kind of odd," came the muffled answer. "So long as it works. I guess there are worse things it could smell like."

Yoruichi smiled and began to gently apply the aloe onto the younger woman's back. Soi let out a small sigh as the gel began to cool her skin. Kido may have been faster, but there certainly was something nice about this. Yoruichi's hands felt good , she was being very gentle and cautious while smoothing the aloe over the angry red sunburn. With the pain beginning to fade, Soi Fong even began to feel relaxed, which itself was quite amazing considering she was lying down, topless, with Yoruichi-sama's soft hands on her bare skin. Wait … yes. She actually was.

Now Soi had the urge to bolt. Of course, she couldn't, though, the issue of having no shirt on. She had seen Yoruichi nude many times while changing back from her cat form. She was even able to not turn beet red at the sight, if the situation was urgent. But things were reversed now, Yoruichi was very much dressed, and Soi herself was half-nude. She'd just have to endure it and try to stay calm. Captains did not run away from someone who merely touched them. Anyway, it was a gigai! It wasn't even her real body! Yoruichi was just touching some husk of flesh, it meant nothing. So if she saw anything, it would be equally meaningless. But Soi's muscles began to tense, her heart rate increased, and there was no denying the body was connected to her. She had felt herself straining at its limits during the training that had gotten her into this situation to begin with. While she was inside the gigai, the body was hers, and through it she felt everything in just as much detail as she normally did. That had been the whole point of training in the gigai, to bring its limits closer to her own.

And so the thoughts flew around in the Second Division Captain's head. Hope, trepidation, eagerness, anxiety, and finally logic trying to rationalize all the emotions away to nothing. Even after a hundred years, her once-mentor could still stir up all the emotions she tried to keep hidden. As thoughts buzzed around, she noticed less and less the pain of the sunburn, and more and more the bliss of Yoruichi's touch.

Yoruichi's fingers seemed to deliberately brush ever so softly over that ticklish spot below Soi Fong's left shoulder blade. Quite against her will (or so she would keep telling herself) Soi giggled. She turned her head to shoot a disapproving frown at her sempai, or at the very least a Serious Look. Sometimes it was hard to keep a Serious Look around Yoruichi. However, when she turned her head, instead of the teasing grin she had expected to see, the former princess was wearing a very genuine smile. "Still ticklish, I see."

"Not that anyone else tries, but yes," Soi answered, feeling herself start to smile too. Maybe things could really be okay again. After Yoruichi had left, Soi had vowed to herself never to let anyone get close to her again, as it only led to pain. Everyone she had ever been close with left her in the end, starting with her own family members all the way to the very person she had pledged her life to protect. It was hard to let Yoruichi into her heart again, but it was even harder to keep her shut out. Knowing that she was leaving herself open to such hurt again was difficult to say the least, but being around Yoruichi again made her nostalgic for the days when they were close companions. Even though it still hurt a little to be near her, experience had showed her that it hurt much worse not to be. After a century of trying to harden her heart against her Goddess, she had fallen so easily back into worshiping her. It wasn't exactly the same as before, but she knew without a doubt she was following through on the promise they'd made under the full moon so long ago.

Yoruichi squeezed a little more aloe from the tube and moved up to Soi's shoulders and arms, being careful to keep her touch as gentle as she could. She knew that the aloe would only be a temporary fix, and it would need to be reapplied after a while. This would give her an excuse to hang around though. She sort of liked the thought of taking care of her former bodyguard for a while - the Second Division's captain was notoriously stubborn and hated accepting help, but Yoruichi knew if it was from her, she would accept it. "Soi, I can't reach your right arm," the taller woman said as she cautiously rubbed the gel onto Soi's right shoulder. "Any way you could get up right now?"

"Umm," she answered, a little grateful that the sunburn made it impossible to tell that her face was flushed. She was in the middle of trying desperately not to need Yoruichi the same way she had before. She reached down and grabbed her shirt from where she had set it, then rolled partway up, her back facing Yoruichi. She unfolded the shirt and held it over her breasts, then sat up so Yoruichi could reach her arm better. Maybe her face wasn't able to blush, but it was conveyed in her body language. Her head bowed a bit and her posture was slightly hunched over. Her thin but muscular arms clasped the shirt tightly over her chest. She didn't have much to cover compared to Yoruichi-sama, but the dark woman was totally confident about her body, to the point where she simply didn't care what anyone saw. In fact, she usually had a good laugh over it if she made someone uncomfortable. Soi Fong was a different type completely. The backless, sleeveless Correction Corps Commander uniform was quite revealing, but it was also very practical. The purpose of the garment was not to show skin, but to be efficient to fight in. She didn't mind wearing it because if she needed to use shunko, anything she wore would get shredded anyway, plus the layered kosode of the standard uniform got hot rather quickly. It wasn't like people threw themselves at her or chased after her for her body, like they did to Matsumoto of Tenth Division, and that was perfectly fine with Soi. But that didn't mean she was at ease with going around half-dressed simply because most people saw nothing to get worked up over. Most especially going around half-dressed in front of Yoruichi-sama, who always stirred up so many feelings she wasn't used to having.

The previous Correction Corps Commander, of course, read her like a book. She decided right now might not be the best time to mention it anyway, since Soi was clearly out of her comfort zone in every way. Instead she sat on the couch next to her and continued applying the aloe on her right arm. Starting at the shoulder where she'd left off, the former princess worked her way down Soi Fong's arm, finally trailing her fingers softly across the back of Soi's hand. She had never understood why Soi was embarrassed about her body - she was slender, muscular, and compact. Watching her in motion was almost hypnotizing, she was at once graceful and powerful. She always was critical of her own flaws, and pushed herself ever harder, knowing that every improvement was hard-fought.

And while everyone else was busy fawning over the girls with more curvaceous bodies, Yoruichi had ever so quietly had her heart stolen by the stoic and dedicated Chinese girl with the beautiful face. Being how she was, though, she'd never been willing to admit it, and was satisfied playing around and teasing the one she cared for, even when it was perfectly obvious that Soi Fong would have fallen into her arms quite willingly if she had but opened them. How had it gone? "Admiration is the furthest thing from understanding." That's what the young Tenth Division captain had reported Aizen had given as his reason for attacking Hinamori, his own vice-captain. Soi had needed to find out who she was apart from Yoruichi - maybe she had even needed to be able to hate her for a while, to see another side of her, take her off the pedestal she had been put on. Like anyone else, she wasn't infallible. Not all decisions were perfect, nor could they be perfect, and sometimes the right path meant giving up something you didn't want to. She hadn't wanted to leave Soi behind, but no one else was ready to step up if she'd taken her, and now she thought Soi finally understood that. The 13 Court Guard Divisions had taken too many losses all at once, and out of either happenstance or deliberate moves against her, Yoruichi had been one of them. And on her own, Soi had grown so much stronger, in so many ways, than Yoruichi had expected. Now that the air had been cleared between them, the attraction was still there - had even intensified. They had both changed, but no amount of time or events had managed to change that. Yoruichi thought that now she could probably fall in love with Soi, which in all honesty scared the hell out of her. Yet here she was, playing again. And she couldn't help but wonder what might happen, that insatiable curiosity.

Soi felt her heart jump as Yoruichi's fingers trailed softly across the back of her hand. In spite of the lingering overheated feeling on her skin, she shivered. She hoped her former mentor would mistake it for something else. She glanced up from their hands only to lock eyes with her sempai. It seemed they had both been busy thinking when the banter between them slowed, her amber eyes seemed to be much more serious than Soi recalled ever seeing them. Just as quickly as she'd noticed it, Yoruichi began to smile mischievously and her eyes once again danced jovially. Seeing this expression on her face seemed much more natural, and the younger woman's anxiety was pushed to the back of her mind.

Yoruichi squeezed a little more aloe into her hand, then dabbed her index finger into it. Suddenly, she brought her finger quickly up to Soi Fong's face and wiped the goop on her nose. "GAH!" Soi exclaimed, shifting rapidly backwards and nearly losing her balance trying to keep the shirt over her chest. She grabbed at Yoruichi's hand with her free right hand, laughing with her, trying to shove the handful of green gel into Yoruichi's face in playful vengeance. Yoruichi pulled backwards now, but Soi let go of her wrist at just the right moment to let Yoruichi overbalance and fall off the couch. When she felt herself falling, Yoruichi reached out and grasped Soi by the wrist, but they were both laughing too hard for it to make a difference in keeping the older woman on the couch. Instead they both fell, Yoruichi tumbling backwards and pulling the lighter Soi Fong down on top of her. Instinctively the Chinese girl put both hands out to either side of Yoruichi to catch herself. Then she realized her shirt was still in her left hand, which was now on the floor beside Yoruichi. Before she could really react to that, the glob of aloe dripped off her nose onto Yoruichi's cheek.

Yoruichi kept giggling and moved to wipe the aloe off her face with the back of her right hand, somehow she'd still managed to keep the left hand full of aloe through their mock-battle. Remembering this, she brought her left hand around Soi's back and slowly ran her hand from the small of her back up her spine to her shoulders. She felt Soi tense up at first, then slowly let her body press down against her sempai. _Perhaps she wants this, too_, Yoruichi thought with a smile. She looked up into Soi's face and slowly raised herself up towards the younger girl.

Soi's eyes drifted half-shut as Yoruichi raised up towards her. Suddenly an alarm went off inside her head. _What am I doing? What is _she _doing?_ Soi rolled off Yoruichi, quickly pulling her shirt on. She sat back on the couch, avoiding looking at her purple-haired guest who now sat on the floor. _Water, need some water. _She reached over for her glass and took a long drink.

Yoruichi leaned back, holding herself up on her hands, feeling a bit confused by the mixed signals. "Ah, I'm sorry. Are you okay?" she asked quietly.

Soi Fong glanced down at her sempai, her eyes darting there and quickly away. "I … don't think we should do that," she answered simply, trying to keep her tone as flat as possible.

"Why shouldn't we?" she asked back with a catlike grin.

Soi's temper flared again. "Just because it's what you want, Shihouin Yoruichi, doesn't mean it's going to fall into place so easily. I'm not the same girl I was then."

Yoruichi actually looked hurt at that comment. "I thought it might be what you wanted, too, Soi. Why do you seem to think everything comes easily to me? I don't want you to be who you were back then, I want you how you are."

"How I am? Hn. You barely know me any more." _And once you do, what if you don't like what I've become? Will you leave again?_

Yoruichi drew herself up and knelt in front of Soi Fong. "I want to know you, though. Won't you let me try?"

Soi finally looked down into Yoruichi's eyes again. "Look, I can be honest with you. I've lost … I can't even tell you what I've lost. You're not the first of it and you aren't going to be the last. I don't know if I can give myself to you like that again. I don't know if I have anything left worth giving sometimes. After heading the Secret Remote Squad for this long … you know full well it's dangerous work. I've learned not to get attached. But you're different, Yoruichi-sama. I look at you, and I can't stop myself from feeling attached."

The older woman remained kneeling and wrapped her hand around Soi's forearm. "Can't you just enjoy what you have while it's there? If something dear to you might be gone tomorrow, wouldn't you regret not enjoying it fully? I lived too long with regret to do it any more. Do you think it doesn't scare me? Soi, I'm scared to death right now. I know the way you are, and I know the way I am. But I want to be what you need in spite of that."

The Chinese woman sighed. "I'm not even sure what I need." She looked away again.

"Well … you probably need some food. You've already shown you're terrible at taking care of your gigai. Maybe you'll let me help, and we can see what happens?"

A real smile broke across Soi Fong's face, her eyes very nearly tearing up. "I'd like that."


End file.
